An optimistic perspective

Sep 20, 2013, 3:14 PM

Like many of you, last night's game had my blood pressure through the roof. It was definitely "an ugly win" and was very frustrating to watch. I know that we have to play better than we did last night if we want to win a championship, but with that being said, some people really need to put things into perspective. A few points:

1. A win is a win. Not only did we get a win, but a win on the road on a Thursday night in an Atlantic Division game. The fact that not only fans, but coaches and players aren't thrilled with that speaks volumes for how far our program has come under Coach Swinney compared to the Bowden Era. Great teams win even when they don't have their A game. Even more than that, great teams win by double digits on the road despite looking like crap for a lot of the game.

2. People need to quit worrying about our ranking. If we win, everything will take care of itself. I'm tired of hearing the "Oregon would be up by 50" and "no way we could beat Bama or Oregon". Have people already forgotten opening weekend when Bama looked very unimpressive against VT, struggled offensively (O-Line in particular), and still managed to control the game and win comfortably? Again, great teams win even without their A game. Bama struggled with Ole Miss in the first half last year too, but does that mean they weren't one of the elite teams in the country? Oregon was horrible defensively against USC last year and gave up 51 points to a mediocre offense that was shut down by Georgia Tech. Again, does that mean Oregon wasn't an elite team last year?

3. Lay off Boyd. I guarantee you no one has been more frustrated with some of his struggles than he has himself. Despite being off, he still completed 65% of his passes and threw 3 touchdowns. Most QB's would take those numbers any day. But again, this program has reached a new level and set a higher standard for itself. The most important thing Boyd has done this year is protect the football. He has 0 turnovers, something that has killed us in all of the games we have lost with Boyd as the starter. Don't count him out for the Heisman just yet. He may not have played as well as some were expecting come into the year, but it's honestly ridiculous for anyone to be talking about who should win the Heisman at this point in the season.

4. Our defense is lightyears ahead of what it was the past two years. We have a nasty, physical defensive front and our linebackers are playing well for the most part. Anthony is playing like a 5 star, Shuey is Mr. Reliable, and Vic Beasley leads a group of D-Lineman that are as good as any in the country. While our secondary is still the weakness of the defense and tackling needs to improve, I still believe that we are making progress. Breedland and Robinson have played much better this year than last year. If you would have told me that we would hold NC State to 14 points rather than 45 last year, I would have told you no way.

Just had to get all that off my chest. It's a long season, and there's a reason they play the games so let's see what happens. I have confidence in our coaching staff to make the right adjustments to have us playing our best football soon. Some people will never be happy, and I am actually thankful that some aren't happy with 3-0 and #3 in the nation with a win over Georgia. What a nice compliment to Coach Swinney. Go Tigers

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when you are used to winning and winning big you understand that winning ugly comes with the territory....the usual, every year powers in the BCS conferences HAVE to win ugly at times. Anyone who doesn't think NCSU has a couple of future NFLers on that DL is blind. They ALWAYS have a few studs up front on defense and in the secondary....if you think that they don't use M. Williams, Manny Lawson, etc. as recruiting tools and examples for HS DL you're nuts. That was a solid defensive front with a team that was playing over it's head trying to ruin our season...EXACTLY what we'd be trying to do if we were in their shoes....with some fans that are not used to winning they'll resort to what human nature does when it gets out of it's comfort zone and that's start the fatalistic thinking that we suck, we're not going to beat anyone if we struggle, we have no chance if we play like that, etc...then the crabs in a barrel crap starts. The Tigers went in a hostile environment, on a Thursday, played a team that wanted to ruin our season, and we found a way to win. Celebrate the victory, next on the schedlue matters, get to #### work.

An optimistic perspective

this might be the best post i've ever read on this site

It WAS a pretty long post!***

Re: It WAS a pretty long post!***

I agree. But that post would get you cyber-bullyed on STS

+1.***

Re: An optimistic perspective

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